Youth Sports Safety is Jim Mackies passion project. With over 50 years working as an AT, he can sit back and turn the profession over to the younger crowd, but instead, he continues to give time and effort to help improve healthcare for all athletes

Had a coach drop dead on the goal line after a game.

As I am headed that way I see the firetruck pulling out, and this was before we AEDs readily available.

Florida is # 1 in sport safety but much to be done. Laws re Concussion, CWI, AED, EAP, etc. but much education and compliance are needed. 

Obviously, there was a big void legislatively & in the knowledge base. Allows me to put many years of experience back into the community to advocate and educate.

Progress is being made but we have to see more implementation of best practices done consistently.  With many schools without an AT there requires more district education, especially in our rural communities.

Resistance and slow to change the culture, especially in youth leagues. Many are volunteer-driven and they rely on what their personal experience was and not best practices as well as the effort it takes to implement.

Podcasts can help to educate and influence the public. They see a lot of situations that happen and yet are dismissed or diminished in a 24-hour news cycle.

Started in 2021

We have been opportunistic and gotten some really high-profile doctors and Athletic Trainers.

Take the time to educate kids, parents, and coaches on the best practices.  Raise the expectations of those you entrust your child to at their sports venue. Take the steps to create a venue-specific EAP, learn CPR, have AEDs accessible everywhere, and connect with an AT.

Jeremy Jackson

Jim Mackie – [email protected]

JAXSMP.com

ATSJAX.com

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Tyler Knight shares some Soccer Specific Return To Play or RTP tips and tricks. With nearly a decade of soccer experience, he has seen a lot of growth in sport-specific rehab plans.

“Train movement not muscles”

1. Create a safe environment.

2. Don’t hurt the person.

3. Be aggressive without breaking rules 1 and 2.

Let’s talk through a RTP plan you use and why:

Contact Us:

Tyler – [email protected]

Jeremy – @MrJeremyJackson

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

MOBO is a single myofascial release tool designed and created by Dr. Christie Powell. Her inventor story is different than the ones we have heard previously.

I have scaled back the company and product offering

We got a huge verbal order before COVID that wanted blue.

Happy accident since we had to order 10,000 units

As a smaller person performing myofascial release on large D1 athletes.

I kept having to McGyver things together to teach the patients how to do the work at home.

At a huge CrossFit event, the contestants all had 10+ devices and that was a huge inspiration.

I wanted one device that could replace most of those.

I reached out to an engineering friend and we worked together.

It is so complicated, I am a PT and I just want something for my patients.

We had to create CAD drawings

Film videos

Pay someone to listen to your idea

The very first prototype was $1000 to produce.

We connected with a producer that worked out in our gym and he was our first funder.

$10,000 seemed like so much but that went through really quickly

He hooked us up with the filming studio.

We launched a Kickstarter to produce about 1000 units.

All my friends were product models and my gym was always the setting for photo shoots.

We did a “Meet and Greet” and the people donated about $20,000 which allowed us to make our first order.

We had trouble sourcing the materials in the US so we had a big process of finding the materials that were responsible.

We got another couple hundred thousand dollars from customers.  This was a personal loan-type investment.

I had to bring on some business partners and there was much more stress.

So much time lapsed between a problem and a solution because they were being made overseas.

The last round of funding happened right at COVID.  We had put in all the work and fine-tuned the process.

We took away all of the moving parts to limit the possible breakages.

We simplified the tool, but of course, that costs money and time.

We got 1.5 million dollars from one investor and that was in January 2020…right before COVID.

We now have to spend all this time filming and creating a website and an online shop.

I felt like I was letting my baby leave the house.

Our deal was with DICK’S Sporting Goods.

We actually shared their manufacturing facility and they felt our tool would help them reach the adventure sports crowd.

We had to negotiate so many things to produce the product cheaper.

We knew there were certain areas we could not compromise on certain components.

Everything got me to where I am now with the product and company.

I could not have done this by myself.  Surrounding myself with the best possible fit and people that have the same values.

I allowed anyone who showed interest to help instead of vetting them and picking the “right” person

I am going to lots of places to do a demo for a running group and a yoga studio.

I am excited we are expanding and blowing up.

AT Inventors Round 1

Establishing a Business and Testing

Logistics and Production

Tokis Story

Jeremy Jackson

Elysia Tsai – https://www.si-boards.com/aboutus.asp

Dr. Christie Powell – http://www.cp-pt.com/our-crew-5

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Alex Bray is a young professional that grew up with social media and smartphones. She uses it to make an impact in her sports medicine practice.

Started in grad school as a way to network, turned into a way to advocate for our profession & athletes, share things I struggle with as an AT to help others, and learn from other ATs in areas that I’m weaker in. 

It can be helpful or hurtful. I’ve created some friendships because of it, but I also see toxic, negative things in the AT Social Media world every day. I tend to scroll past those & ignore them as best I can. 

I’ve learned things to help my athletes (@ Zach’s incredible shin splint program, patellar tendon treatments, etc), learned about jobs, and gotten involved more in my state association because of it.

The most “harmful” thing for me is more of my personal anxiety struggles. I feel like I’m a part of the first generation that ever grew up with social media and playing competitive sports we always hear “Everyone is watching what you post,” so I tend to overthink if my content is portraying what I want to, or if someone will take it out of context. When I start to overthink things and feel like my mental health is struggling, I usually delete the apps for a while.

I try to go by the rule I grew up with using social media: Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your grandma to see! There are certain hot takes that I avoid sharing opinions on. I also tend to ignore any of the toxic, negative comments/accounts.

Twitter – a huge opportunity to network with other ATs, learn from other ATs, and also share things with parents/athletes that they may not learn otherwise. 

Facebook – From an AT perspective, mainly to connect with my athletes’ parents/encourage other parents to understand what ATs do for their kids. For example, I had the opportunity to go to the state capitol this year, so of course I’m going to share that and make sure parents see ATs do so much more than stand on the sidelines!

TikTok- I use TikTok in waves. I’ll download it, post some content, and then get anxious with it (afraid something is taken out of context for example) and delete it for a while. I try to take “social media breaks” anytime I start to feel like they’re affecting my mental health.

Probably more than I can remember. Honestly, living by the “don’t post anything you don’t want your grandma to see” is my general guideline for social media use. I definitely have certain opinions that are different than Select Physical Therapy, but I try to disclose that my opinions are my own, not the company I work for. 

Friendships/relationships more than anything!

Use social media to share positive things about the profession / where it’s going / what we do. Feeding into the toxic negativity spiral doesn’t help anyone! Use that same energy to reach out to people who can make a difference at the state and national levels!

Jeremy Jackson

Alex Bray – @AlexBrayATC on Twitter

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Andrea Kovalsky uses Twitter a lot as an Athletic Trainer.

…with compassion: Have compassion for not only others, but yourself. Everyone is going through or has gone through stuff, even the ones that look like they have it all together. If someone is mean to you, it’s a reflection of who they are, not you, so give them the compassion they need. There are enough “-isms” out there (racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, etc.). Try compassion instead!!!

Andrea Kovalsky

Twitter: ATCAndrea

Jeremy – MrJeremyJackson

Resources:

TikTok always ended up showing me stuff I did not want to see, so I deleted the app. Meanwhile, KP, AKA Kyle Parkison, is amassing quite a following and positively impacting the world using TikTok.

Started it for fun and advocacy

A lot of students and people did not know All of the things we do as Athletic Trainers.

TikTok has a lot more random followers

TikTok would be the only one if I had to choose.

Those videos are about ten seconds to a minute long.

A lot of people know and follow me…

It is kinda weird

I am outgoing but people outside of my circle following and recognizing me was just weird.

I have been using it for about 6 years.

I have taken a  lot of ideas from others

Free stuff for the kids

Advocacy

My wife and I have had a few conversations about it, but she actually is pretty helpful in making videos.

Some are 1.5 hours 

Some are 30 seconds

Some are 6 seconds

I keep the app open while recording the long videos and just lock the phone until it is time to record again.

I use:

Twitter

IG

TikTok

Facebook

YouTube shorts

TikTok is easily my favorite

Our admin team was 100% supportive

None of them really knew what is going to happen

Make sure you ask and keep open communication.

I ask parents before posting ones with student-athletes

Several brands have sent me things or given me discounts for making videos.

Lots of student-athletes in the surrounding area have connected with me.

Jeremy Jackson

KP – Kyle Parkison

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MonroeCentralAT

IG: https://www.instagram.com/monroecentralat/

TikTok: @MonroeCentralAT

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Growth Plate Injuries are hard to identify unless you know what to look for. Dr. Lindsay Crawford specializes in Pediatric Orthopedics and shares some of her wisdom with the Sports Medicine Broadcast.

The location of the pain is an indicator

Is it at the joint itself or on the bone adjacent?

Dr. Crawford likes to have xrays before doing a lot of special tests on athletes with swelling

Take your time

Look all around

Break it down and say words they understand

Use your normal system for evaluating

Give them a distraction – maybe close their eyes

I try to not clue them into what I am looking at.

Year-round baseball is huge in the southern states where you can play all year long.

You need to have a feel for the parents and kid and know if you can say rest or not throw anything at all other than in a life-threatening situation.

Return to throwing instructions are complex and have a lot of steps.

After they begin their program require them to come back into the clinic to re-evaluate

Know what the patient’s goal is, and form a plan that works and they can follow.

Do we have an end point or goal

If there was no pain, and then they started throwing the curve ball and pain started, we need to cut out the curve.

If you have mysterious knee pain then check the hip.

Growing pains are real

Some kids have growing pains

3-6-year-olds, typically have pain in their calf or knee

They can not relate it to any activity

@UTPedsOrtho on TikTok and Instagram

Contact Us:

Jeremy Jackson

Shawn Ready – [email protected]

Dr. Mark Knoblauch – [email protected]

Dr. Layci Harrison – [email protected]

Bob Marley – [email protected]

ATCornerPodcast – [email protected]

Joseph Eberhardt – [email protected]

Christina Fry – [email protected]

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Mental Health Coordination is preparation for when a mental health crisis occurs. Amanda Groller and Bubba Wilson discuss things available to Athletic Trainers when they need help.

2016 is when it became official

How did it start – 

A perfect storm of events.

Jim Thornton had been trained in CISM as an EMT and reached out to him after a wrestler died.

This sparked some conversations and got the train moving.

This statement could help destigmatize mental health

It only makes sense for ATs to have their own CISM tools

Military people want to hear from people in the military, someone who knows their situation.

Having conversations about CISM teams is really important.  It gets the ball rolling and allows us to call in support to continue to do the job that we do.

Self-care is emptying your bucket and escaping for a minute.

Compassion fatigue is a problem.

You need to debrief the debriefer

Dr. Jessica Yellen went through a Trauma Informed Yoga Course.  This course was meant for the caregivers to release their burdens.  

We use this approach:

“What has happened to you?” rather than “What is wrong with you?”

Psychological first aid

Suicide prevention training – get them to the next step alive

Stay within your scope, but know the resources available.

Help simplify the process for the ones struggling.  REMOVE THE RED TAPE

QPR training is a good option

“When you do not know what you do not know you become dangerous” – Dr. Josh Yellen

We are mandatory reporters, but we also have a duty to report people who are struggling.

You are not going to get in trouble for calling 911, you are going to get in trouble for NOT calling.

Build relationships before so that the resources are available.

My crisis is not your crisis

I can not force you to take the help

Education is one of the best things we can do.

If you did not need help then there would not be available.

Contact Us:

Jeremy Jackson

Shawn Ready – [email protected]

Dr. Mark Knoblauch – [email protected]

Dr. Layci Harrison – [email protected]

Bob Marley – [email protected]

ATCornerPodcast – [email protected]

Joseph Eberhardt – [email protected]

Christina Fry – [email protected]

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Driving Healthy helps us lead by example, and take advantage of time off. Shawn gave me lots of tips before we took our 3800-mile 4-week road trip across the country.

Longest road trip: well over 1000 miles

Average Road trip: some days working outreach I might drive 350 in a day

nutrition is huge

Know your body’s needs and what causes problems.

I stay with simple things that I can extend throughout the day.

Meat cheese and nuts work great for me.

Drink things that help you hydrate and feel better

Stop and do your lunch break and bring a game, frisbee, or soccer ball.

Pee breaks also help to get you up and moving

Bring a cooler of healthy snacks and food with you.

Donnie Thompson bowtie for postural correction

Keep exercises – band pull-a-parts

Doing the old rocky routine with the lat pulldown machine in the truck

Use a lacrosse ball in a tube sock for mobility

Lifting heavy before starting a long drive gave me soreness that encouraged me to move.

Mile markers: I would see a mile marker and think for this mile I am going to focus on getting a really good core contraction.

Then I would squeeze the butt for the next mile.

Get up and move

Changing what I listen to helps me.

Contact Us:

Jeremy Jackson

Shawn Ready – [email protected]

Dr. Mark Knoblauch – [email protected]

Dr. Layci Harrison – [email protected]

Bob Marley – [email protected]

ATCornerPodcast – [email protected]

Joseph Eberhardt – [email protected]

Christina Fry – [email protected]

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Collagen is everywhere right now. It is in coffee and everything, but we need to be more strategic in our implementation. Meredith Sorenson Joins Dr. Yellen to discuss how we can should and should not be using it.

It can help increase the collagen in structures and joints in the body.

A lot of athletes are using it as a preventative measure which is where the most evidence is.

We want to make sure that we are loading the tissue when we are consuming the collagen.

NSF certification means you get what it says and there are no banned substances.

VitalProteins, SIS, Klean Athlete, Live Momentus

Or you could go to the grocery store and grab some Jello…well gelatin

Collagen is probably the better option.

Bad information is really easy to come by.

The studies were measuring subjective pain

P1NP is a direct biomarker

15 mg Dosage is probably the minimum

It is a pretty low-risk supplement.

Most of the indicators are in research…we are not going to remove someone’s tendon to measure the collagen.

They have the resources to purchase it

The athlete is actively working in rehab

They are struggling to get enough protein in as is.

More of a need for explosive movements

Possibly more for females to encourage tendon and ligament strength

Meredith Sorenson – @MeredithDarcyRD

Contact Us:

Jeremy Jackson

Shawn Ready – [email protected]

Dr. Mark Knoblauch – [email protected]

Dr. Layci Harrison – [email protected]

Bob Marley – [email protected]

ATCornerPodcast – [email protected]

Joseph Eberhardt – [email protected]

Christina Fry – [email protected]

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.